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Leicester City v Pompey: John Mousinho's press conference
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00:00John, that win against Middlesbrough must feel like a lifetime ago now, mustn't it?
00:04Yeah, it's always the case with the international break.
00:08Very, very quickly, we've got to move on.
00:10When we got back into the building, we did the post-match for Middlesbrough
00:12and we've used all the positives and bits to improve upon
00:14to frame what we're doing in training over the past few days.
00:18And yeah, we've got to move on really quickly because we've got a big week coming up.
00:21Minhoek Yang was probably playing his best football that he's played for the club so far before the break.
00:25How much work does he still have to do to get to be that in-product that you want him at the club
00:30and how impressed have you been with him before the international break?
00:34Yeah, I suppose Minhoek's ambition will be to go back after the end of the season
00:38and compete in the Premier League with Tottenham.
00:41So the level he's at now, he's showed a huge amount of improvement,
00:44a huge amount of promise over the past three games and the past two especially.
00:48But yeah, there's a lot of work to do to make sure that he continues to improve
00:51on the trajectory that he's on and I know he's realistic about that.
00:54But yeah, we're just very, very pleased to have him in the sort of form he's in at the moment
00:58and to have him firing and yeah, we'll keep pushing him and keep pushing him to achieve those ambitions.
01:05How have the past two weeks been with no game obviously to prepare for?
01:09Does that give you time to finalise some things in the training pitch?
01:12Yeah, it gives us a little bit of time that we otherwise wouldn't have without the international break.
01:16I think when you're in the season post that third international break,
01:20it feels like a blessing to have a Saturday to Saturday game because of the amount of games
01:23that come thick and fast after that November break.
01:26So yeah, to have two weeks, you can have a mixture of rest and a mixture of training
01:33that you wouldn't be able to have really.
01:35So if you look at the three-day block that we had last week, Thursday to Saturday,
01:38we can push the boys a little bit more physically,
01:40we can keep them out of the training pitch a little bit more,
01:42knowing that we haven't got a game coming up imminently and that's been a real advantage for us.
01:45So Adrian Segtic obviously stayed with the group over the break.
01:48Was that his decision or did you have anything in that?
01:51No, he wasn't selected, I don't think.
01:54Going on to injuries, how's Josh doing?
01:57Yeah, Josh is okay.
01:59Josh, we're probably looking at him being back for the Stoke game.
02:04It's dragged on a little bit longer than we would have hoped and we would have thought the injury.
02:08So we've got to give him a little bit of time now to get back into the groove of things.
02:11And we expect him to train on Friday, so to have a good training day Friday, Saturday,
02:15then we'll give him a week to get back into things for Stoke.
02:19How's Nico's hand doing?
02:20Is he doing any running in training to keep his fitness up as well at the time?
02:23Yeah, Nico's been out on the grass, he's been doing a huge amount out on the grass.
02:27That doesn't stop him from doing anything.
02:29It gives him a little bit of a head start, but not so much as it would for an outfield player
02:33because he doesn't end up having to do a huge amount of running in his role anyway.
02:37So it's until that hand fully heals that he's not going to be able to get back to full training.
02:41Obviously Callum as well as his recovery time is still going to come back at the time you said, isn't it?
02:47Yeah, we're still looking at the same timescale for Callum, so nothing imminent for him.
02:52Harvey Blair, he's obviously come off the bench a few times.
02:54How close is he to getting into the starting XI?
02:57How much has he impressed you with the impact he's had?
02:59Yeah, he's had a really positive impact.
03:01You would have seen, I think, from the Watford game and the Middlesbrough game,
03:05the impact that he's had coming off the bench.
03:07I'm working very, very hard both going forward and tracking back.
03:11Anybody that was at both the games could probably see where he is in terms of fitness needed to start a game
03:17and not quite there yet.
03:18So I'm nice to build that up.
03:20I think certainly in the Watford game, I had a huge input and a huge influence on the game,
03:25but was one of those that after 15, 20 minutes physically, you could see that he'd been out for that long.
03:31So it's just a case of building him up slowly until he's ready to start.
03:35Going on to Saturday, Leicester City.
03:37No game in the Championship is easy, but Leicester is probably the hardest team you can face.
03:41You got six points over Martins if you enter this last season.
03:44Does that add to anything going into Saturday?
03:46I don't think so.
03:47I mean, the games last year were against a completely different football club.
03:52If you look at the way that Leicester play compared to the way that QPR played last year,
03:56if you look at the players at Marty's disposal, the playing style, everything about it is completely different.
04:02So I think it's naive.
04:03It would be naive of me if I looked at that and thought, oh, there's some sort of advantage there.
04:07It's just, yeah, it's a completely different kettle of fish,
04:08and I think we're going to come up against a very good Leicester side.
04:107.45 kick-off on a Saturday.
04:13Is that anything you've experienced in your career?
04:16No, no, it's not.
04:17I don't think it is anyway.
04:17We've had plenty of 7.45 kick-offs on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, all those mid-week ones that they usually are.
04:24But, yeah, never anything like this on a Saturday.
04:27So a different experience.
04:28And, yeah, just for us at the football club,
04:32just know how much of a difficulty it is then getting back after that for the fans.
04:37So I know we're still going to sell out the OAN,
04:39so hopefully they have a decent enough journey back.
04:41Obviously, a week ago, we unfortunately lost Milan Mandaric.
04:44How fitting is it that we're going to be playing Leicester, another team that he's obviously chairman of?
04:48Yeah, I think so.
04:49I think there's a lot of sort of outpouring of goodwill after that sad news
04:54and, you know, someone who's so influential in the game.
04:57And, yeah, a pretty fitting one that we're playing on one of his former sides as well at the weekend.
05:01Farley, going on to Saturday, how much are you and the lads looking forward to not only playing Leicester,
05:05but knowing you've got three games in one week coming up?
05:08Yeah, I think the boys always look forward to playing as many games as possible.
05:11And we like that as a coaching staff as well.
05:13Sometimes it's nice to have a little bit of extra time to have the week to prepare for games.
05:17But, you know, the next couple of blocks of games, we've got three game weeks coming up.
05:22After this as well, we've got the Birmingham, Wrexham and Hull game.
05:26So we've got to be ready for it.
05:27We've got to be right at it in terms of preparation,
05:29in terms of having that quick turnaround tactically and physically.
05:31So it's a brilliant week coming up.
05:33We're playing against some really big sides and some sides that are flying high.
05:36And that's exciting.
05:37Pay me your time, John. Good luck with that there.
05:39Cheers.
05:39This time last year, you didn't have a single win.
05:43You've already got three.
05:44Does this show how far the team's coming that time?
05:48I think so.
05:49Regardless of the results, one thing we wanted to really focus on this year was being a lot more competitive.
05:53We spent far too many games last year, particularly away from home,
05:57just not being competitive, never being in the games at all.
06:00And yet it did take us a long time to adjust to the championship.
06:02I think that was from a staffing perspective as well, more so myself, in terms of the way that we approached games,
06:08the way that we approached games tactically in particular.
06:11And also for the players.
06:11We had players at the start of last season who probably weren't quite up to the pace of the league.
06:15And all of a sudden, after seven or eight games, clicked into gear.
06:17And once we did get, probably not that first win, because we were still poor after that first win against QPR,
06:23but after that second win against Preston, really clicked into gear.
06:26So it took us a while to get going.
06:28I think that was one of the advantages of having a year in the championship,
06:31learning from how difficult it is and learning from all of the challenges that we were exposed to.
06:36And hopefully we continue to face that, as we have done in the first nine games.
06:42But there's still a massive challenge in front of us, because the games come sticking fast and they don't get any easier.
06:47I mean, you think back, it was a pretty bleak period, but QPR meant to finally get that monkey off your back, wasn't it, QPR?
06:55Yeah, QPR was great, because we got the win.
06:59My overriding memory, though, after that, was that we played QPR, we won,
07:04I thought we might have turned the corner and then we probably put in our worst performance of the season on the Tuesday night against Cardiff.
07:09So we clearly haven't quite got things right at that point.
07:12We then went and lost to Sheffield Wednesday on the Friday night and followed that up with, I think,
07:17the draw to Hull, the loss to Plymouth, and then finally we got the win against Preston.
07:20So it's still, even after that QPR game, it still took us a while to get going.
07:24And yeah, like I said, it probably wasn't until that Preston game that I felt we were properly at it as a team.
07:30So hopefully, yeah, I know now we're in a much better spot in terms of the league.
07:34We still have to make sure that we don't get too carried away with ourselves and we still do the things that have made us an OK side so far this year.
07:42But yeah, it's certainly a better start than it was.
07:45And also you approach somebody like Leicester away from home, a strong side, more competitive side than this time last year.
07:51Yeah, you know, we're facing a very, very good side and we're facing a team that, despite the lack of incomings,
08:01is still littered with talent that was signed for the Premier League.
08:06And yeah, we have to be right at it and we have to be competitive.
08:08And one thing, like I said, away from home last year, against some of the big boys we were, to be honest,
08:14but it was actually against some of the other sides that we let ourselves down.
08:16So we have to make sure, as we have been this year, I think we should take confidence from the fact that we took a point at Southampton,
08:22we took a point at West Brom, we lost 2-1 to Ipswich in what I thought was a disappointing performance
08:27because we just didn't get going, but we were OK.
08:29We should definitely take all of those positives and think, OK, we're not a million miles away,
08:35but we do need to get better in certain areas and we're competing with some of the big boys in the league.
08:39You're improved away form.
08:41Would you say that's back to Millwall-Preston last season since then?
08:45Yeah, I think even further back.
08:49So, you know, the West Brom game was the last time that we lost a game away from home last season by more than a goal.
08:56We still lost too many games by the odd goal here and there, Coventry, Millwall, Preston.
09:03They were really disappointing because we played so well in a couple of those games,
09:06maybe not so much against Millwall, but certainly against Coventry and Preston.
09:09I thought we were outstanding, forced Preston into four changes at half-time,
09:13but we couldn't quite get the results, so I thought that was building.
09:15I thought the away form had got better.
09:18We had beat Oxford and it was coming by the time we played Norwich.
09:20It did feel like that was just everything coming together on the day
09:23and proved to be a really positive result for us.
09:27We even managed to take a point at Hillsborough towards the back end of the season
09:31when we didn't play particularly well in Sheffield when they were better than us.
09:34And that's, again, a big part of that, the team's transformation.
09:37We got too used to going away to places last year, losing heavily,
09:40and having to rely on our home form when we came back on a Saturday.
09:43We did it well.
09:44We did it well enough to stay in the league, but it certainly wasn't a pleasant experience.
09:47So what is different then?
09:48There's a number of things, I think.
09:50We've tweaked a lot of things practically, but we've also tweaked a lot of things tactically as well.
09:55I didn't mean to rhyme those two things, but little things around how we approach away games
09:59with training in the week, how we approach away games with travel and preparation.
10:02But probably more importantly is that change in playing style.
10:06And I think just being a bit more practical away from home and adjusting to how sides play on bigger pitches
10:12with what's just a completely different set of circumstances you're faced with,
10:17regardless of what it should be like.
10:19Football is just playing on the pitch with 11 players.
10:22But for some reason, home and away are very different.
10:25But even Hipswich, when you went 2-0 down just for half-time,
10:28I know there were a few of people watching going,
10:30oh dear, this could be a long day here.
10:31But you didn't capitulate and in the end lost 2-1.
10:34Yeah, and I sort of felt, oh, there's a danger of that there.
10:38But we'd actually been OK in the first half.
10:40We probably had one of the better chances of the half to actually equalise.
10:43And then we continued just before half-time.
10:45So it did feel like maybe the floodgates were going to open at that point.
10:48But yeah, I was pleased with how we stuck in.
10:51My only criticism really of the Hipswich game is that we waited until we were 2-0 down to play.
10:56So hopefully that's a really good sort of kick up the backside to say that we can actually play
11:01or we can get involved and get engaged in games, even against the better sides,
11:05a lot sooner and a lot quicker than maybe we had done in the past.
11:08And a lot of that's just about confidence and belief.
11:10But hopefully we've built a bit of that over the past couple of games
11:13and will remain to be seen on Saturday.
11:16Josh Murphy's obviously not going to play against Leicester.
11:19What did you make of that interest from Leicester around that deadline day a few months ago?
11:24I mean, it was nothing that we'd heard at all.
11:26So we didn't have any contact from Leicester and there was no bid that came in from them either.
11:30So as far as we're concerned, there may have been.
11:32They may have popped up on one of their lists.
11:33But yeah, there was nothing from our standpoint.
11:37Were you concerned at all?
11:38I suppose, yeah.
11:40We were always concerned with potentially losing players in a window.
11:44And when you look at some of the bigger clubs that show interest in certain players,
11:51it can be very difficult to stop them from going.
11:53But thankfully we got through that period and Josh has signed his new contract since then.
11:57I suppose you can understand, like I say, why clubs would look at Josh Murphy, wouldn't you?
12:02Yeah.
12:02And I suppose it's a compliment all round if clubs are looking at any of our players.
12:08Whereas we do at some point, or we are at some point going to have to sell players to sustain
12:15or actually to kickstart that sort of player trading model.
12:19It just didn't really, it doesn't and didn't at the time feel like it was a decision we wanted to make,
12:25certainly without anyone in the pipeline to replace Josh.
12:28And, you know, the minute we are really trying to build an established championship club
12:32before we can actually go and look at what we're doing elsewhere
12:35and maybe look at making a profit on a couple of players.
12:37And there's absolutely no pressure on us from the board to do that.
12:42So, yeah, it's a pretty good position to be in.
12:44As deadline day was ticking down, were you just hoping nobody came in for him?
12:47Yeah, I think as deadline day ticked down, we were very open in terms of the conversations
12:52we had with Josh and his agents about sort of potentials in terms of the move.
12:58And we felt pretty confident as the day ticked past.
13:02How can you fit Josh Murphy and Yang and the same team together?
13:07Well, I think we'll definitely have a look at what that looks like and how we can work it.
13:12I mean, at the minute we have gone with, say, Segs and Connor Chaplin in the same team.
13:18We've gone with John Swift and Connor Chaplin in the same team.
13:21Maybe if you spoke to me about the start of the season, you know, all three of them as tens,
13:25you're not quite sure how you do it.
13:28I certainly think there's a load of scope.
13:30We actually thought that Minkirk, or we saw Minkirk play quite a bit for QPR on the right last year.
13:35And the outstanding performance against Derby on a Friday night when QPR won 4-0,
13:40Minkirk operated off the right.
13:42I think he can do that.
13:42I think he plays a 10 as well.
13:43Well, you know, if we have a fully fit squad and we have everybody to select from,
13:48first of all, we don't necessarily have to get everybody in the same team.
13:51We can chop and change.
13:52And if we need to, you know, if we need to sort of fit players into the side, then great.
13:57We'll be able to do that.
13:58We'll find a way to do it.
13:59But if not, if it's at the detriment of the team, then, you know,
14:02we just have to play the right players at the right time.
14:03So you could put Yang on the right and then Murphy on the left then?
14:06Or the opposite way.
14:07Or I'm sure Minkirk could play as a 10 as well.
14:09I think he's really adaptable.
14:12We, you know, there's an argument to get your best players on the pitch and work it out.
14:16There's also an argument not to disrupt the formation, not to disrupt what you want to do.
14:21So, yeah, we'll take a practical view to that.
14:23And finally, we're not seeing you for a while because of the international break.
14:26Regards injuries, what's the latest on Callum Lang's start-up with, please?
14:30Yeah, Callum's progressing nicely.
14:31Nothing imminent in terms of his return.
14:33So we're still looking at November.
14:35I think the Millwall game in November we've penciled in.
14:38So, yeah, Callum's doing okay.
14:40At Shocknessy?
14:41Shocknessy's about two weeks behind Cal in terms of very, very similar injury.
14:45And he's had the same surgery, so he's about two, three weeks behind.
14:49So I think overall we probably won't see Shocknessy until Christmas.
14:53We'll maybe look at that Charlton game.
14:55Okay, Smid?
14:57Yeah, Nico.
14:59Nico's doing well.
15:00Well, he can do everything but actually go out there and put on a pair of goalkeeping gloves.
15:05So he's been running, he's been doing his plyometric work, and he's been doing a bit of goalkeeping work with the softballs out there.
15:10But we're still waiting for the hand to fully heal.
15:14So, yeah, Nico, if we're looking realistically, we're probably going to see Nico hopefully after that third international break.
15:24Who may?
15:24Franco, yeah, Franco's probably about three or four weeks away from the return to training.
15:30So you're looking for him in November then?
15:32Yeah, similar, similar.
15:33And Franco might be training around that Millwall game, but probably he spent a long time out.
15:37He didn't train properly with Crystal Palace before he signed here.
15:39So he's going to take a bit longer.
15:41And Waddingham?
15:43Yeah, Tom, not that we're going to have a full score for that Millwall game.
15:47Tom's about the same.
15:48He's been out running and progressing nicely, but we're still only three weeks post-injury.
15:52So November for him then?
15:54November for him, yeah.
15:55Anyone else who missed out?
15:57I don't think so.
15:58I think that's the full lot.
16:00And there's no fresh injuries from the lads coming back from the internationals?
16:03Not that we know of.
16:04Terry came back today.
16:05We are still short on Min Hyuk, McKenzie and Hayden Matthews.
16:10But Terry's come back in his train today.
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